It is increasingly common for businesses to maintain telephone systems specifically designed for processing a wide variety of customer calls, including purchase and service order requests. The ultimate goal of such customer service telephone systems is the efficient processing of such calls, coupled with a high degree of customer satisfaction.
To accomplish this goal, typical customer service telephone systems are designed to receive a plurality of customer calls and to route such calls to a plurality of telephone agents for processing on a first come, first served basis. Additionally, to further improve efficiency, most such customer service telephone systems are either fully or partially automated.
In the typical automated customer service telephone system, upon receipt of a customer call, a number of anonymous recorded voice communications are used to prompt the customer for a variety of information. Such information is then used by the system to process the customer's request automatically, or to route the call to the proper telephone agent for further processing.
One example of such customer service telephone systems is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,903 issued to Kohler et al. and assigned to AT&T Bell Laboratories ("the Kohler '903 patent"). The Kohler '903 patent discloses a method and apparatus for automatic call distribution. The method and apparatus of the Kohler '903 patent distribute incoming calls to telephone agents by matching the information needs of the caller with the particular expertise of an agent.
More specifically, in the method and apparatus of the Kohler '903 patent, each incoming call is assigned prioritized skill numbers that estimate the skill requirements of the caller. Telephone agents are also assigned skill numbers that represent their various particular abilities. After receipt of an incoming call, the method and apparatus of the Kohler '903 patent interrogate the caller to determine the caller's skill requirements. A search is then performed to match the caller's skill requirements with the skills of an available agent, and the call is routed to that agent.
Another example of such customer service telephone systems is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,237 issued to Dowden et al. and also assigned to AT&T Bell Laboratories ("the Dowden '237 patent"). The Dowden '237 patent discloses a method and apparatus for automatically processing operator assistance telephone calls. The method and apparatus of the Dowden '237 patent include an automated operator position including speech recognition and announcement capabilities for interrogating a caller.
The automated operator position of the Dowden '237 patent also includes a control device for transmitting and receiving messages necessary to process the caller's specific requests. The automated operator position still further includes switch capabilities for switching the call to a telephone operator in the event that a situation arises for which the automated operator has not been programmed.
However, customer service telephone systems such as those specifically disclosed in the Kohler '903 and Dowden '237 patents, and those described generally above, still suffer from a variety of problems. Chief among such problems is the high degree of caller dissatisfaction with the automated portions of such systems. More specifically, many callers view automated customer service telephone systems not only as impersonal, but unaccountable as well in that there exists little or no recourse for the caller in the event of system inadequacies or failures.
Nevertheless, automated features in customer service telephone systems are still very desirable to businesses because of the increased efficiency they bring to such systems. As a result, there exists the need for an improved customer service telephone system having automated features that overcomes the type of caller dissatisfaction described above.